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Old Fashioned Lemon Buttermilk Pie

This pie is the dessert equivalent of the dorky high school kid that nobody wanted to talk to who ended up becoming a fashion model.

If you were to take it to a holiday party, it might sit untouched for who knows how long. It just doesn’t look all that fancy (because it’s not). But trust me, attitudes will change once someone takes a piece and the word spreads.

Sometimes the most plain looking thing can be the most interesting once you dive in.

At its base, this lemon buttermilk pie is a classic custard pie, but it has a perfect balance of sweet and sour and has a really bright flavor. It’s addictive stuff.

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My favorite part? Once the custard sets up you can eat a piece of this pie like you would eat a slice of pizza. I ate a piece once while in the car just because I could.

Whether or not you make your own crust, add this pie to your list this holiday season. I already can’t wait to make it again!

Helpful Equipment

Directions

For the crust: Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Add cubed cold butter to the dry mix and coat the butter cubes with flour. Then use a pastry cutter, fork, or your fingers to work the butter into the flour mixture until it’s in pea-sized pieces.

Combine water, apple cider vinegar, and ice in a separate bowl. Add the liquid to the dry stuff a tablespoon at a time until the dough just comes together with some crumbs on the edges. You should need 4-6 tablespoons of the liquid.

Shape the dough into a round disc, adding more liquid in small drops if needed to get the dough to stick. Once the dough is in a solid disc, wrap it in plastic wrap and store it in the fridge for at least an hour, but overnight is best.

When ready to make pie, Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Roll pie crust out on a lightly floured surface until it’s roughly 10 inches in diameter. Transfer to your pie pan and trim edges to your liking. Poke some holes in the crust with a fork and line the pie with parchment paper or foil. Then add pie weights or dry beans to the crust.

Bake the crust for 15 minutes at 425 degrees F.

For filling: 1) Whisk together sugar and flour in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, melted butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla. Whisk wet ingredients into dry ingredients until mixture is smooth.

Lemon Buttermilk Pie

The Crust

You don’t necessarily have to make your own crust for this pie. Whatever works for ya. I always like the opportunity to work on my crust game though if I have the time.

Recently, I’ve been trying out this recipe from a Brooklyn bakery and it’s really good. I like to make crust the night before so it has time to hydrate in the fridge.

Basic crust.

The crust rolls out really beautifully and easily. In no time, I have mine rolled out and transferred to my pie pan.

Roll it out.

When it comes to the edges, I don’t do anything fancy. I just pinch the crust between my fingers to give it a bit of a decoration. It’s a simple pie. Don’t overthink it.

Nothing fancy.

You do need to pre-bake this crust for this pie which is an annoying step (and possibly a good argument for using a pre-made crust). I just pull out my canister of pie beans though and toss them in the pie with some parchment paper. Poke a few holes in the crust before you do this so steam can escape.

Bake the crust for 15 minutes at 425 degrees F.

Pie beans in action.

Lemon Buttermilk Pie Filling

This is about as easy as a pie filling can get. Whisk together the flour and sugar in a medium bowl.

Flour + sugar

In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, melted butter, lemon zest and juice, and vanilla.

The wet stuff.

Then whisk the wet stuff into the dry stuff and stir until it’s smooth.

Nice and smooth.

Pour this awesomeness into your pre-baked crust. Look at that color!

Action shot!

Baking the Pie

Bake this pie at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. It’s done when the center is set (although it might jiggle a bit which is fine).

The hard part is that this pie really does need to cool for 30-45 minutes before you try to slice into it so the custard can set up.

Hello, beautiful!

The finished slice is rich and creamy.

For how easy the filling is, this is a no-brainer pie to try this year. I’d put it against any other pie I’ve made recently. It was WAY good.

I make my own Greek yogurt, so I always have a lot of whey tucked away in the fridge. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) I’m going to try this, substituting whey for the buttermilk. I LOVE lemon pie, so I have high hopes for this.

I think we cut into it before it was cooled enough or something, because it made a bit of a custard mess in the pan, but it tasted delicious! So I would say that the buttermilk powder works just fine flavorwise.

nick, this is some bomb ass pie!!! i made it to go with our family lunch today and well…the conversation stopped with the first bite. so good! i added 1/4 tsp of salt to the flour/sugar mixture and zest and juice from two lemons as mine were on the small side. also, 1 tbsp of vanilla. store bought crust. and i completely love how you described it. truer words and all that…

Just made this pie for Easter weekend! I would say the hardest part is having patience for your dough to get cold and for your crust to cool/pie to cool before cutting it! Your custard looks much smoother than mine, and I was a little skeptical, but then I remembered what you said about this not being the prettiest pie and it was a big hit! Next time I might do a little more lemon and a little less sugar as it was on the sweet side, but this pie got rave reviews from my family! Definitely worth taking the time to do the crust from scratch as well :)

I just have to tell you. My hubby found this recipe in a magazine from our electric co-op. It was awful. No lemon taste whatsoever. He tried it again, and again, and again tweaking it each time thinking maybe he could fix it. I told him he needed to ditch that recipe because nothing was going to help it. He was determined to get it right. So, I Googled it and your site popped up. I sent him the recipe from your blog (we both watched you on Food Fighters and I have had great success with your recipes). He tried it today and oh my goodness. It was amazing! I think the other recipe was either misprinted or something was accidentally (or purposely) left out. But the one he made today following your directions is a keeper! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I had buttermilk pie for the first time today at a family event (we were the Yankees in the bunch), and our whole table was arguing about whether it had tapioca in it or not. It seems from what we googled that it doesn’t. But what are the little tapioca-like curds in there?

Hey Chris! Traditional buttermilk pie definitely wouldn’t have tapioca in it. If the baker cooked it too hot, the milk might set irregularly which would maybe give the appearance of tapioca… or they did put tapioca in it and it’s an entirely different thing at that point. My recipe definitely doesn’t use it though!

Awesome pie!!! Have made a couple times now and altered slightly… Added an extra egg yolk, heated in saucepan on stove to thicken slightly, then strained before putting in shell. Silky smooth and even more lemony. Love it!

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